Casting directors, AMPTP reach tentative deal

Current three-year pact expires next month

Casting directors and the congloms have reached a tentative agreement on a successor contract a month before the expiration of the current three-year deal.

The casting directors, repped through the Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters, reached the agreement Friday morning following five days of talks at the headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers in Sherman Oaks.

The casting directors will hold a ratification meeting on Sept. 15. No details were immediately available on the specifics of the new pact.

Reps of the casting directors and the AMPTP met in June as a follow-up to a January dispute over casting assistants, but it’s unclear if that issue is addressed in the tentative agreement. Casting directors had refused to take jobs during a two-week period, telling the studios that it should become standard practice for the companies to foot the bill for assistants during pilot season, while the studios refused to revise what has been a long-standing practice.

The current contract covers about 500 casting directors and associates in Hollywood and New York — but doesn’t cover assistants or wage rates. The Teamsters were able to obtain the first union contract in 2005 for casting directors following an organizing campaign that lasted three years.